Real Salt Lake, Real Monarchs, Utah Royals FC Is Staying In Utah, Here’s Why
Sep 30, 2020, 10:18 AM
Photo courtesy: Real Salt Lake
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – It would make no sense for whoever takes over ownership of Utah Soccer LLC to move the organizations from out of the state of Utah. Here is why.
MLS Entry Fee
Major League Soccer recently announced that the 30th team to enter the league will pay an entry fee of $325 million. While sportsbusinessdaily.com reported earlier this month that the current owner of Utah Soccer LLC, Dell Loy Hansen, is asking for $500 million to sell Utah Soccer Holdings.
Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen is under investigation by @MLS after reports of inappropriate language and conducts surfaced.
Hansen also apologized for comments he made Thursday morning. #KSLTV @GarnaMejiaKSL https://t.co/IYsCBDNpu7
— KSL 5 TV (@KSL5TV) August 28, 2020
Utah Soccer Worth
Put yourself in the shoes of somebody who is considering purchasing the ownership rights to Utah Soccer for a minute.
If you’re willing to spend $500 odd million to purchase the rights to Utah Soccer, which by the way already has world-class, state of the art facilities, why would you then move the organization when you can simply buy an expansion team for much less?
Moving an MLS franchise is no cheap feat either. For argument’s sake, let’s assume the new owners wanted to move Utah Soccer to Las Vegas, Nevada. Maybe they could play in the new Las Vegas Raiders stadium but there would likely be a fee associated with that. The Raiders are not going to let another professional team use its facilities for free.
Building new training facilities is expensive. Dell Loy Hansen spent $63 million just in construction to build the Zions Bank Real Academy in Herriman, Utah where the property is far cheaper than anywhere in Las Vegas.
“To host one of the premier youth tournaments in our country at Zions Bank Real Academy is a dream come true."
📰 | https://t.co/ELpDbZEvnj pic.twitter.com/DjmFwhiHsy
— Real Salt Lake (@realsaltlake) October 2, 2018
Going Nowhere
Real Salt Lake, Real Monarchs and Utah Royals FC is staying in Utah. The clubs are not going anywhere because financially it does not make any sense to move them.
Furthermore, the league, Major League Soccer, does not have a history or teams moving locations. In 2006, San Jose became the Houston Dynamo and recently there was speculation that the Colombus Crew was going to re-locate to Texas, however, those rumors were squashed when the Crew obtained new ownership and saved the fans and club the heartache of moving.
“(Columbus) is a growing city and soccer is a growing sport,” new owner of Colombus Crew Dee Haslam, said. “It’s just a perfect match. I can’t think of a better match than Columbus and soccer.”
